Israeli filmmaker made popular ’80s action movies

TEL AVIV — Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan, who produced more than 200 movies, including several popular action films of the 1980s, has died.

Golan, who also directed Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris, died Aug. 8 in Tel Aviv. He was 85.

Golan, a co-founder with his cousin Yoram Globus of the Cannon Group production company, reportedly lost consciousness outside his home in Jaffa while walking with family members. He was pronounced dead after an hour of attempts to resuscitate him.

Globus told the Hollywood Reporter that Golan was “undoubtedly a founding member of the Israeli cinematic landscape, locally and all of its appeal internationally.”

Golan produced such films as The Delta Force, starring Norris; the Death Wish sequels with Charles Bronson; Masters of the Universe starring Lundgren; Cobra starring Stallone; and Bloodsport with Van Damme.

He also produced the iconic Israeli films Sallah Shabati starring Israeli actor Chaim Topol, and Operation Thunderbolt, based on the Israeli raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda.

Golan was born in Tiberias in northern Israel, the son of Polish immigrants. He changed his last name from Globus after the 1948 War of Independence for patriotic reasons.

He was the recipient of the Israeli Film Academy’s Ophir Award for lifetime achievement and the Israel Prize.